Keeping the Faith
by Chick With Brains
Summary: Faith's life has never been ordinary, and it just gets stranger after coming to camp. Add in a kidnapped camper, an important quest, and the fact that she might not be just an ordinary demigod, and what do you get? One big adventure. R and R, please!
1. My History Teacher Turns Hippie

**A/N: Hi everyone! This is my first fic (as you probably already read in the summary). I really hope you like this! **

Before you read this, you need to know that it's a really unbelievable story. Honestly, I almost don't believe it myself. My life's been changed forever, and it all started with shoplifting. Just a tiny bit of shoplifting, mind you, and if you saw how cute that pair of shoes was you would understand. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning...

My name is Faith Morgan. The morning of the day this all started, I was at my desk in Arts For Education Academy in New York City. It's a school for "problem students" like me to "learn and grow through being educated about the arts". (Those are the principal's words, not mine.) Apparently, learning about poems and plays all day long would turn any kid into a model student. It was the last place I had wanted to go, but after being kicked out of seven other schools, my foster parents really didn't care.

That morning, I was in history, which was taught by Mrs. Clingman. She was pretty weird, but then again, all our teachers are pretty weird. They were all young adult women with startlingly blue eyes, which alternated between looking full of life and energy to looking dreamy and far away, like how people look when they daydream. We only had nine teachers at AFEA and a principal, but for some reason the school board never hired anyone new.

I tried to read what she'd written on the blackboard, which was hard for a dyslexic like me. Then, my classmate Eve elbowed me in the side.

"What?" I said, annoyed.

She whispered in a singsong voice, "Cole's staring at you again." I turned around and sure enough, Cole Rivers was eyeballing me. He'd been crushing on me ever since I moved to this school and he acted like he couldn't believe I didn't feel the same way. It wasn't that I hated him, but he was a wimp and walked in a funny way.

RIIINNG! The school bell went off, signaling the end of the day and scaring the you-know-what out of me. No matter how many times I heard that bell ring, for some reason it still startled me. I gathered my things and shuffled out the door with everyone else.

I stopped at my locker- which was painted all over like the lockers on Victorious- and grabbed my worn-out blue messenger bag with my initials, FPM, embroidered on the front. As usual, I ran through a checklist of all the things I needed to bring home. Pencils? Check. Notebook? Check. History book? Crap, I'd left that in Mrs. Clingman's room. I just needed to go back in the room and grab it, so I did, but when I walked in, my jaw dropped. My history teacher was sitting on her desk with her legs crossed, which she never did. She was wearing a white tank top, deep blue jeans, and no shoes, and I was pretty sure she'd been wearing a purple dress when I left. Her thick brown hair, which she normally wore in a bun, was tumbling down her shoulders. Weirdest of all, she was strumming one of those little harps and humming a tune. I walked out of the room without her noticing me, but also without my darn history book. Oh well, what would it matter if I "forgot" my homework one more night?

The rest of the afternoon was pretty much ordinary. I checked in with my foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robertson, then headed for the mall. I didn't actually have any money, but I liked window shopping. Plus, I had a lot to think about.

The day after I had told him there was no way we could be a couple, Cole had been admiring me like nothing had ever happened. My totally ordinary teacher had been sitting on her desk, barefoot like a hippie and playing the harp. Not to mention that Eve had been acting strangely. A few days ago, I had said something about how my teachers didn't seem like real people, and she acted like I was right about that. I hadn't thought much about that, though. Why on earth would my teachers not be human? If you didn't look at my ADHD, dyslexia, and insane family, I was just a normal kid.

I was in there half an hour before I saw The Shoes. They were sitting in a designer handbags store. They were orange (my favorite color) ballet flats with a bow at the toe and a little blue logo near the heel. I rushed in and looked at the price tag, which almost made me faint it was so high. I loved the shoes, but there was no way I could have them. Unless...

_No,_ I told myself._ Stealing is wrong. _Honestly, I'd stolen before, but it was only things like candy, gum, and nail polish. Every time I did it, there was this rush of adrenaline, but I would tell myself that this was the last time I would steal. Sadly, my brain does not understand the words "last time".

It was like my hand grabbed the shoes before the rest of me could react. I turned to the wall where no one could see me and stuffed them into my purse. Only when I was walking out did it occur to me that I should've checked for security cameras, but by then a guard was already on my tail. I did the first thing that came to mind: run.

I dashed past at least fifteen stores, not really thinking about where I was going, before he caught me.

He grabbed my shoulders and said harshly, "Where do you think you're going with those shoes, young lady?"

"I'm not sure about that, really." I replied.

He didn't find that funny. "You're coming with me," he said while leading me away.

We ended up at what looked like a jail cell in the wall. He opened the door, pushed me in, and re-locked it. I grabbed on to the bars, like an old prisoner desperate to get out. As the guard walked away, he said something like, "Kids these days have no sense of following rules. We got ten-year-olds stealing hundred-dollar shoes..."

"I'm twelve, thank you very much!" I yelled, but I don't think he heard or cared.

I turned to look around the empty cell, only to find it wasn't empty. Standing in the opposite corner was none other than Cole Rivers.

**A/N: So, whatcha think? Visit my profile if you can, 'cause it's always changing, but most importantly, please review! I'll have more PJO coming up later and also some Alex Rider fics.**


	2. Goat Boys and Snake Ladies

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter! Hope you like this one! PS, I don't own PJO or any of the characters, that all goes to Rick Riordan.**

"Cole! What are you doing here?" I yelled.

He didn't answer that. He said, " I hope you're happy. I had to steal this to get here!" He held up a football jersey.

I tried to imagine Cole ever playing football. That's why I started laughing out loud.

Outside, the first guard had been replaced with another who was talking on her cell phone. She was very tall and skinny, and she had long hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in a while. Also, she had this annoying habit of stretching out the S sound in her words when she talked.

I flipped open my phone and saw a picture of me and my foster parents standing in Central Park. I had to wonder: What would they think when they heard about this? Would they even still want me around?

I started dialing their number, but Cole snatched the phone away. "No way," he said, "it's too dangerous right now." He looked at the picture and frowned. "This may sound weird, but which one of these people is your real parent?"

"How do you know that they're not both my real parents?" I came back with.

"Faith, just answer the question."

"Okay, those are my foster parents. You want to know what happened to my real ones? They were dating in college when Mom found out she was expecting me. A few months before I was due, Dad was killed in a car wreck. My mom couldn't afford to take care of me without him, so she gave me up for adoption."

Something occurred to me. "You're locked in a room with me, and you're not staring or flirting. What's up with that?"

Cole looked away. "Yeah, about that... I never actually had a crush on you. I pretended to so I could keep an eye on you. You see, I-"

"Seriously!" I cried. "First of all, who pretends to like someone so they can 'keep an eye' on them? Secondly, why do you need to watch me?"

"That's sort of a long story. I know this sounds crazy, but I'm here to protect you."

Cole Rivers? Protecting me? If anyone needed protecting, it was him.

"I need to get you to a special place where you'll be safe."

I snorted. "From who?"

In a whisper, he said, "You never know who you might need to be protected from." He paused. "Oh, and by the way, I need to break you out of here."

I was shocked. "Dude, have you always been this insane?" I asked.

"Possibly," he said as he pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket. Slowly and carefully, he unscrewed the hinges of the door so that it was no longer attached to the wall. Then, he lifted the edge of the door and moved it away so we could squeeze through.

_How in the world could he do that, with his skinny little arms?_ I wondered.

He motioned for me to follow him out, and I did. Silently, we tiptoed away- and ran smack into the guard. Oops.

"You kidsss aren't trying to essscape, are you?" she hissed.

We shook our heads and said no. Yeah, like she would have believed us. _Excuse me, miss, but we need to break down this door. No, of course we're not escaping..._

"I'm sorry, kidsss, but you can't leave thisss place. And by that, I mean you won't leave ever."

Then, the weirdest thing happened. Her skin turned green and scaly, and her eyes turned yellow. Her long, thin legs turned into two snake tails. She smiled an evil smile and jumped at us.

Cole yelled, "Stay back, Faith, I've got this!" He took off his shoes and I just about had a heart attack and died. He didn't have feet, he had hooves.

"Oh my gosh, Cole, are you-"

"Don't you dare say 'half donkey'!" He ran up and kicked the snake-lady in the stomach, but it didn't have any effect. He then tried to punch her in the face, but she ended up biting his hand. Seeing Cole standing there with his hand all bloody, I decided that I didn't care what he said, I was going to fight this thing!

Just one problem: now the snake woman had a knife. Clearly, she intended on using it. Before I had time to wonder about where she got it, adrenaline took over. I ran behind her and stepped on her left tail, making her howl in pain. While she was distracted, I snatched the knife right out of her hand and stabbed her through the chest. She screamed, then vaporized into golden dust.

I fell to the ground, thanking my lucky stars that I was good at taking things. Cole just stood there, breathing hard.

"That," he declared, "is something you need protecting from."

**A/N: So, now you have read the chapter. The next step is...REVIEW!**

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	3. Flashbacks, Vulcans, and Unsafe Chariots

**A/N: Chapter Three! Hope you like it! Disclaimer: I do not own PJO ****(sadly) **or Star Trek. Yes, Faith gets to pick on Leo for being a child of "Vulcan". 

Okay, so apparently I was in a lot more trouble than I thought I was in before. I kept lying there, waiting for an inevitable "I told you so" from Cole, but it never came.

The next thing I knew, Cole was dragging me out of the room by my wrist, not even trying to explain the snake-lady attack. He took me to the guy's bathroom, locked the door, and finally let me go. I stood up and brushed the whatever-there-is-on-the-bathroom-floor germs off my clothes. Giving Cole my best evil glare, I grabbed the collar of his "Save The Trees, Recycle Your Homework" t-shirt and demanded to know what was going on.

"What is there for me to tell you?" he said stupidly.

"Everything! That guard was some kind of monster. You just said you need to protect me. You have hooves, for goodness's sake!" My thoughts were spinning wildly.

He glanced around nervously, as if someone was watching. "It's about who you are, Faith. You're, well, different than ordinary people."

I hoped he noticed that I was trying to make my glare more evil than ever. As if I didn't already know that I wasn't normal!

He pushed my hand away, then said, "I've got some friends waiting outside the front entrance. They'll help you understand everything. Now, come with me unless you want another _dracaena _to deal with!" I really didn't know what that meant, but I wasn't about to argue if there might be more monsters after me.

We reached the parking lot in no time. I noticed that somehow Cole was wearing his shoes again, but I didn't worry about that for long. Cole waved to three people standing across the parking lot. Two of them were boys: a cute blonde one and a Hispanic one. The third person was my best friend, Eve Ventura. They started walking closer and I couldn't help but feel nervous, as if one of them might be holding a gun.

The blonde boy smiled, and my fears of possibly being murdered went away. I don't know why, but something told me I could trust these people. They motioned for us to come follow them, and we did. As we walked, Cole and Eve had the weirdest conversation.

"So, Cole, have you told her yet?"

"You mean, about her parents?"

My ears perked up at the words _her parents_.

"What else? I swear, you are so thickheaded sometimes."

_I couldn't agree more_, I thought.

"No, I just told her that she was different."

Eve sighed. "That's the number-one way to make them angry, you know."

"Oh, you know I'm not good at explaining that! I'm not a demigod like you guys."

"Already knew that, goat-boy."

I listened for a while longer and learned that the blonde kid was named Jason and the Hispanic kid was named Leo. We ended up sitting in front of a coffee shop while Eve and the other boys tried to explain.

"Faith," Jason began, "do you know the stories about the Greek gods?"

I nodded my head. That had been Mrs. Callon's (one of my four poetry teachers) favorite thing to talk about.

"I know this sounds crazy, but those gods are still around today."

"That does sound crazy. Are you sure that you're completely sane?" I sarcastically replied.

Leo blurted out, "It's true! They're living in the Empire State Building and they cause wars and they have kids like us and-"

Eve raised a hand. "Leo, I believe it would be best if you shut up."

"Heeyyy, wait just a minute!" I yelled. "What did you just say about gods and their kids?"

No one seemed to know the best way to answer that. Finally, Eve spoke up.

"The truth is that one of your parents was a Greek god or goddess."

I couldn't speak for a while. My head felt like someone was holding it underwater and I couldn't breathe. These people were either all mentally confused or telling the truth, and I wasn't sure which one it was. Thinking about this, I had a random flashback...

* * *

_I was trying out for track my first week at my old school, Marion Academy. I was crouched at the start, and my heart was pounding even though I hadn't even started running yet. The buzzer sounded and I just took off running. My long reddish-brown hair floated behind me. My feet were almost flying under me, it seemed. Time had pretty much slowed down. I was vaguely aware of the fact that no one was in front of me or even close, and I was very aware of the coaches in the stands cheering. I crossed the finish line a full three or four seconds before anyone else._

_This boy with hair that stuck out all over the place ran up to me open-mouthed. "Girl, how do you run that flipping fast? It's almost un-human!"_

_I just stood there relishing my 15 seconds of fame.

* * *

_

What I eventually said was, "So, are you four children of gods?"

"Except for Cole, yes. He's a satyr, half boy and half goat." Eve answered. "My mother is Aphrodite, goddess of love."

"Jason's parent is Roman," Leo added. "He's a son of Jupiter, god of the sky and king of the gods."

Jason said, "Leo's dad is the god of fire, Vulcan- I mean Hephaestus."

Leo groaned. "Dude, how many times have I told you, _use the Greek names!_"

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Vulcan, huh? I believe that. You even have the ears."

His ears were perfectly normal, of course, but it was funny to see him reach up to them to make sure. "The point _is_," he said in a very miffed-sounding voice, "we need to take you to Camp Half-Blood. It's the only truly safe place for demigods."

"And we get there how..?" I thought out loud.

"Easy," Jason said. "We use the chariot."

As if on cue, a wooden chariot appeared with two white horses at the front. No, not just horses. Winged horses, or pegasi.

"Get in. We've got a lot of ground to cover." Eve ordered.

Was she serious? That thing looked like it could fall apart any minute. "Get in? Not me. Leo, can't you just beam us there?"

Eve laughed and Jason high-fived me for that one.

They had to drag me, but I got in the chariot. Jason grabbed the reins and the winged horses started running, then flying.

"Good grief, this thing is _flying_ us there?" I yelled. We sailed over the sky, but I can't really tell you what it was like because my eyes were tightly shut the whole time.

We touched down soon after, but to me it seemed like a really long time. I shakily got to my feet and stepped out of the chariot. What I saw around me was just plain unbelievable. A bunch of kids practicing archery, a rock wall that seemed to have lava running down it, a big field of strawberries far away, and numerous cabins arranged in a U shape.

"Guys, what is this place?" I questioned.

"Camp Half-Blood." Leo said. "Also known as home."

**A/N: Did you like this? If you did, then review, because I'm not posting another chapter until I get 5 more reviews! Please? *puppy dog face***

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	4. A Day at the Races

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! So, here's the latest installment of Faith Morgan's demigod adventures! (Wow, that sounded dramatic.)**

One word that describes Camp Half-Blood: crazy. You've got the rock climbing wall here, the archery field there, and volleyball, cabins, and Capture the Flag in between. My schedule was weirder than any I'd ever had for school. I mean, who has Greek Language Study and Monster Slaying as classes in a normal school?

Sure, it was crazy, but I thought it was awesome.

After dismounting off the chariot, I was introduced to Chiron. At first, he looked like he could be anyone's English teacher, but then he got out of his wheelchair. He had a white stallion as his bottom half.

"Whoa!" I yelled. "You're a centaur, from the old myths."

"Right, child," he said, seeming a little surprised. "Do you already know a lot about the myths?"

I nodded. "I had a teacher who taught us Greek mythology at my old school. It was Arts For Education Academy. Have you ever heard of it?"

His old eyes lit up, as if I'd given him a missing piece of a puzzle he'd been working on. "I knew your teacher a long time ago. I'm glad that Clio has taught you well."

Clio? Her name was Mrs. Clingman. I didn't know what he meant, but I decided it was best not to question Chiron.

Next, Jason and Eve took me to the front porch of a big house, apparently called the Big House. A fat man in a leopard shirt sat there. with bloodshot eyes and a grumpy feeling around him. For whatever reason, he definitely didn't want to be here.

When he saw us, he mumbled, "Oh, great, another one."

"What was that, Mr. D?" Eve asked. "You know we're trying to be more friendly with newcomers."

He gasped in mock fear. "Oh no, maybe now Father will add another twenty years to my sentence! Whatever shall I do?" He turned away.

Jason rolled his eyes when the man looked away. "This is Faith Morgan. Be nice."

"Claimed or unclaimed?"

"Unclaimed."

"Tall or short?"

"Kind of on the tall side."

"Male or female?"

"Um, female. You'd think you'd already know-"

"What color hair?"

"You know, you could just look at her!"

Eve looked just a tiny bit scared after that. "Um, maybe we should go."

"I'd be glad if you did." Mr. D growled. "I'll see you at the campfire, May Jordan."

Eve had us far away from the house before I could tell him he got my name wrong.

Glaring at Jason, she said, "You've got to remember, Jason. Mr. D can be dangerous when he wants to be. Don't sass him."

I laughed. "That old guy? Jason could take him. Heck, _Cole_ could take him-"

"Oh yeah, I should explain. Mr. D is short for Dionysus. Ring any bells?"

It sure did. That was Dionysus, the god of wine. He could have made me go mad, or worse.

"You know, I thought when I met a god, he would be powerful or strong-looking." I remarked.

Eve shrugged. "That's what we all think."

"Now I've added to the list of gods who are definitely _not_ my father." We all laughed over that.

* * *

After a tour of camp, I went with all my new friends to my first class of the day: running. My teacher was about my age, with bright green eyes, long brown hair, and slightly pointed ears. She looked- how do I describe her?- like an elf, or forest nymph.

Turns out, she was a forest nymph, or a dryad. She introduced herself as Elizabeth Pine.

"So, I've met my first satyr, my first god, and my first dryad. What next?" I asked her.

"You run, that's all." she said. "If you can beat me in a footrace, it means you're pretty fast."

Jason spoke up. "If you don't mind my asking, how is a tree nymph good at running?"

Cole groaned and Eve said, "Please excuse him. He's new."

Liz giggled a little. "It's all right. Anyway, us dryads have to run away from suitors a lot. Suitors, for example, like that satyr over there," she said while nodding her head at Cole.

"Hey, what-" Cole started.

I stared at Cole. "You flirted with her?"

"Long story," Liz said. "Satyrs are very persistent when they find one they like. Believe me, I know."

"You can't just talk about me right in front of me, right?" Cole kept complaining.

"You know, Liz, this guy right here flirted with me, too. He said he was-"

Cole started walking away then, grumbling something along the lines of "I'll never understand girls".

Liz turned to me. "You can share your lovesick satyr story later. Now, let's run!"

We crouched at the starting line as I tried to remember all I'd learned at track meets. Jason blew a starting whistle and we took off. The dryad sprinted ahead before I could even get started. Liz was right, she was very fast. However, I was faster, and soon we were in a battle for first place.

A look of pure determination was on Elizabeth's face, and I soon realized that I would have to try really hard if I wanted to get ahead. I imagined that my feet were flying beneath me as I went. I got in front just in time to cross the finish line, and heard Jason, Eve, and Leo cheering loudly. Unfortunately, my victory was somewhat spoiled when I kept running and faceplanted into a tree.

"Ow!" I said spitting bark out of my mouth. "Why do we have these races in the forest, anyway?"

In between laughs, the others congratulated me, and Leo jokingly teased Liz for losing a race "right in your own forest, for the gods' sake!" Eve just looked at me thoughtfully.

"Whatcha thinking about, Eve?" I asked.

She answered, "I might have an idea about who your godly parent is."

"Really? Who-"

"Can't tell you now," she said. "I want you to be surprised if he claims you tonight at the campfire. Now, what's next on your schedule?"

I reached into my messenger bag and felt the shoes that I'd stolen. _That's weird,_ I thought. _Wouldn't the store people have put those back? _I dug deeper and then found the schedule.

"Next is Sword Fighting."

Leo laughed. "Oh, this will be fun. You'll get to choose your own weapon here."

I get my own _weapon_? Now I was more sure than ever that this was no ordinary camp.

**A/N: Have any of you already figured out about Faith's teachers? If so, you know way more about the myths than I did before I started writing this. Just for fun, I want to know who you think the teachers are. No prizes, but I might send you a congratulatory PM. If you can't figure it out, no worries, you and Faith will find out soon enough!**

**I don't need a certain number of reviews this time. Just remember that reviews are the single most important thing an author can receive, and without them we won't know what to do with our stories. (Do you non-reviewers feel guilty yet?) :)**


	5. Kids With Swords? Real Smart

**A/N: Hi there! Sadly, I have run out of cookies to offer my reviewers. Until I get more, I will have to give out gummi bears and fudge brownies instead. :-] Read on!**

You _really_ have to wonder what the people were thinking when they started this camp. I suppose a smart guy looked at the blueprints, then said, "Why don't we put the kids with the same godly parent in the same cabin?" After that, his not-so-smart buddy said, "Great idea! And while we're at it, we should also give them all swords, so they can turn into the heroes they were destined to become!"

Yeah, great idea, not-so-smart guy. At least, that's what I was thinking the first time I walked into the swordfighting arena.

The place was a _madhouse_. Kids were swinging their swords like baseball bats at whoever happened to walk by. Those with bows and arrows were shooting them into the air, then laughing as they somehow always avoided hitting anyone when they landed. Music was playing and campers were yelling or laughing. It was too loud to hear yourself think, and I'm pretty sure I saw two boys dueling and doing the Cupid Shuffle at the same time. Away from it all stood two boys with curly hair, laughing hysterically.

Leo was looking at them like he really wanted to join in on the fun. One glare from Eve, and he was having second thoughts.

Eve and Leo dragged me (I was being dragged around a lot, wasn't I? I counted three times in one day) and our backpack full of swords down to the boys. Jason ran off to a girl with brown hair and green eyes who was tap dancing while trying to block hits from her opponent.

"Travis, Connor, explain this!" Eve thundered, angrier than I'd ever seen her.

The taller one said, "Chill out, pretty. It's just for fun."

The other one, who looked like his brother, said, "It's a chaos spell. Lou Ellen from the Hecate cabin taught us. Guaranteed to make everyone in the area go nuts, but without any damage, severe injury, or loss of life. Add in a dance mania spell from Connor's girlfriend in the Apollo cabin, and you've got one crazy swordfighting competition. Awesome, isn't it?"

Leo said, "Yeah!" I threatened to hit him upside the head.

The tall one looked in my direction and said, "Cool! A new camper. What's the name?"

"Faith," I told him. To the left, Jason was telling the girl to, and I quote, "get over here before you get hurt! I wouldn't want that to happen to you."

"My name's Travis. I'm guessing you've not been claimed yet?" the boy asked.

I shook my head no. The younger one said, "Then you'll be staying with us, in the Hermes cabin. Oh, and I'm Connor."

Eve was calmer now. "She'll come by the cabin around eight. Now, if you'll excuse us, could you call off the spell or at least clear a space for us?"

Travis said, "That would be no problem, if we knew how. It should wear off in about an hour, if you're willing to wait."

We were not willing to wait, so we walked over to the edge of the woods where I'd raced Elizabeth, the dryad. On the way, we bumped into Cole dancing a ballet in a patch of wildflowers._ Not_ a sight I ever want to see again! Apparently, the music spell carried a lot farther than Travis and Connor intended it to. Luckily, he snapped out of it and followed us.

Jason had brought the girl from the arena, who was still looking sort of dazed from the magic that had been used on her. Jason introduced her as Piper, a daughter of Aphrodite. He didn't introduce her as his girlfriend, but Eve told me everything about how they met on the way there. Now I could clearly see Eve's traits from her godly parent's side: she was usually the strong and in-charge one, but she loved to talk about love. Also, the Jonas brothers. She's crazy about them, but that's not the point.

We stopped at a field that had plenty of space for practicing. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a human shape running away. It looked like a young girl with strawberry blonde hair cut like Tinkerbell's. She didn't look like a camper.

"Who was that?" I asked.

Eve looked in the same direction and caught a glance of the girl. "Oh, that's a meadow nymph," she said. "Like dryads or naiads, but in a meadow. I think they're called leimoniads?"

That was a good enough answer for me. Eve signaled for everyone to take out their weapons. She had a small makeup mirror that expanded into a shield and a lipstick tube that became a small sword with a blade that reflected faintly pink light.

Leo laughed. "Wow, Eve. That's the most Aphrodite-ish weapon I've ever seen!" He was ignored by everyone, which seemed to irritate him. Disgruntled, he reached into his tool belt and pulled out a big hammer. Too big to fit in his tool belt, really. How'd he do that?

Piper had a dagger that was almost like a mirror. All Cole had was a set of reed pipes. Well, I'd never thought of him as a warrior, either. Jason had a gold coin, which I laughed at until it flipped into the air and became a gold sword. Everyone else's weapons were bronze, so he was really the odd one out with his gold weapon. He explained to me that his weapon was Roman, like him.

Now, it was my turn to get a weapon. We'd carried a big bag of them to the arena just for me to choose from. Again, I mentally questioned the intelligence of giving a bunch of kids swords, but I was excited as Eve dumped the contents of the bag onto the grass.

The first one that caught my eye was a simple bronze dagger. It was very nice-looking, but it felt too light in my hand for me to fight with well. Next was a shiny sword that also looked cool, but felt heavy and awkward to carry around. I thought back to the only time I'd used a real weapon to fight: the _dracaena _(Cole told me what it was called) that attacked me at the mall. Sure, I had escaped without injury, but my attack was only because of fear, adrenaline, and ADHD. What would I do in an actual battle?

_First things first_, I told myself. _Get a weapon, then you'll have time to worry about a fight. _I picked up a knife that was barely visible sticking out of the bottom of the stack. It wasn't too light or too heavy. I curled my hand around it, and the contours of the handle seemed to match perfectly with my palm. Closing my eyes, I could almost imagine myself in battle, beating up monsters left and right.

Cole remarked, "Nice knife. Those are good for fighters who are fast and clever."

"Like you," Jason said.

I smiled. Yeah, like me.

**A/N: Oh my gods, you guys, I am so excited right now. Why? Tonight, I'm going to my 8th grade prom! I'm already all dressed up. :] I just can't decide whether my imaginary date should be Connor Stoll, Nico di Angelo, or Leo Valdez...**

**Review, review, review!**


	6. DemigodStyle First Aid

The three other demigods totally kicked my butt in swordfighting. Forget that I had what I believed to be the coolest weapon ever; I was still no match for those guys and their months of training. Leo had this way of knocking my knife out of my hand with his hammer so I would keep dropping it, sometimes having it land on my foot. So, the only injuries I had were technically from myself. That should show you just how experienced of a fighter I am. On top of that, I was starting to be pretty exhausted and sweaty.

Piper looked down at my left foot, which was now bleeding from a cut on the side, and grimaced. "Yikes, that's not looking too good," she said. "Better get that healed."

"We should show you the cabin you'll be staying at, too," Eve put in.

The five of us walked (or hobbled, in my case) back to the main part of camp, where the cabins for the campers arced around in a U shape. Jason went out for supplies, and I sat down on a rock and held out my foot so I could see it clearly. There were lots of small scratches, but what concerned me was the rough cut Piper had seen going down in a diagonal from my ankle. It was still bleeding a little, and I knew from my foster mom's time as a nurse that it needed to be bandaged, pronto.

Apparently, Jason wasn't thinking along the same lines, because he wasn't bringing bandages. He was holding a Ziploc bag containing what looked like square lemon cookies.

"What is this stuff?" I asked him.

"Ambrosia," he responded. "Call it demigod-style first aid." He held out one small square to me. "Here, try some."

I popped the ambrosia into my mouth, and the first thing I noticed was that this was definitely _not_ a lemon-flavored cookie. The taste of pineapple pizza filled my mouth, and I found myself feeling stronger. I looked down at my ankle. To my surprise, the bleeding had stopped entirely and the edges were quickly coming together. The gash became a mere scratch, then disappeared, along with all my other injuries.

Leo saw my expression and laughed. "Why so shocked?"

That seemed sorta obvious, but I answered anyway. "I just ate a cookie that tasted like pizza that healed my foot. Not something you see everyday, right?"

Leo said, "It is around here. You get used to it."

I reached for another square, but Piper brushed my hand away, telling me that too much of the ambrosia could kill me. She looked dead serious when she said that, too.

"The golden rule of ambrosia: only take as much as you need to be healed," she said.

"Sis, there is no golden rule of ambrosia," Eve said back.

Piper made a face that said, _Yes, I made that part up, but I was still right, wasn't I?, _then gestured for me to come with the rest of the group to a cabin at the far end of the U.

The cabin was plain looking with the doctor's symbol on the side: two snakes intertwined around a staff. I guessed this was the Hermes cabin, where those two brothers told me I would stay until I was claimed. The door was open just a hair, so I opened it further and stood in the doorway. The place was crowded with kids of all ages, none of whom seemed to like cleaning up. All of them wore orange T-shirts. _This_ was where I'd have to stay until my mom or dad claimed me?

"Go on in," Cole told me. "There's not a lot in there that can hurt you."

"What do you mean, not a lot-" The door closed behind me before I could finish that sentence.

Travis and Connor saw me and walked over, stepping over sleeping kids and on a few toes and fingers. Connor said, "So, the new girl returns. Been claimed yet?"

The younger one must not be too bright. "One, it's been only a few hours since I last saw you, which I'm sure is not a lot of time in which to be claimed. Two, if I had been claimed, would I be coming here still?"

"I know all of that," Connor said cockily. "As the son of Hermes, I'm free to make jokes, am I not? Besides, if you were claimed by Hermes, you _would_ still be coming here."

I noticed that they both had the same smirk, the kind that told you they were certainly up to no good.

Travis said, "When you come back here after the campfire, you'll have to sleep in Little Matt's bed over there. Sorry that I couldn't find you an empty bed, but since the war demigods have been coming in like crazy."

Travis pointed to a bed on the right side of the room, where a small person was curled up in the covers. I figured I might as well get to know him, so I went over to him, stepping on other people's fingers and having to say "Sorry," "Excuse me," or "My bad" each time someone cried out.

Matt peeked his head out of the sheets when I sat down next to him. He looked like he was about six and had reddish-brown hair, like mine, that stuck up all over the place in cute-little-kid fashion. He whispered, "Hey there."

"Um, hi," I said, unsure of what to say. I've never been good at talking to little children, but Matt didn't seem to care.

"Do you know who my mommy is?"

"No, but-"

"Me either. Do you know who my daddy is?"

"Sorry, but no-"

"I don't either." Matt looked up at me. "But Travis tells me about the gods sometimes, and you know what I think?" Without waiting for my answer, he said, "I think my daddy's Apollo."

I wondered how a boy so young could make a guess at his godly parent. "How do you know?"

He told me, "Well, Apollo likes singing and poems, right? I like singing and poems, too. You want to hear a poem? I made it up just today."

He launched into a rhyme that started with, _The boy named Matt who had a cat was playing with a baseball bat. His friend named Joe danced in the snow and didn't know which way to go..._

I heard the sound of a horn blowing, and people started getting up and going out the door. Connor walked up and said, "Time for campfire. Here, put this on." He threw an orange shirt at me that was identical to everyone else's. I held it up and saw that it said CAMP HALF-BLOOD on it in black lettering. _That's cool,_ I thought. _It'll match my stolen shoes. Yup, I'm wearing my stolen shoes out in public. That's not weird at all._

"Oh, and if you don't mind," Travis called over his shoulder, "could you keep up with Matt at the campfire? He shouldn't be any trouble."

Sounded all right to me. After pulling my new shirt over my head and slipping on my favorite pair of stolen shoes, I took Matt's small hand in mine and walked out the door.

I remembered something: _Didn't Eve say something about people getting claimed at the campfire? This could end up being an interesting night_, I thought.

Oh, I had no idea.

**A/N: Hello there! You know what I'm going to tell you guys? Guess! Wrong answer, wrong answer, VERY wrong answer- okay, just stop guessing. Rick Riordan released the first chapter of The Son Of Neptune! :DDDDDDDDDDDDD I read it and it rocks. Rocks, I tell you. And Percy looks so incredibly hot on the cover! Here's the link, just take out the spaces.**

**h t t p : / / c d n 3 . d o l i m g . c o m / e x p l o r e / P M P a g e s / P r i n t a b l e / S o n _ o f _ N e p t u n e _ p r e v i e w . p d f **

**Also, would you guys be interested if, over the summer, I challenged myself to write as many weird PJO pairings as I possibly could? ****The rules of this would be:**

******1. I would write a collection of drabbles about a variety of weird PJO pairings.**

******2. I would only use pairings that no one had ever written a fic about before.**

******3. If I find 25 or more never before seen pairings to write about, I will have succeeded!**

******Don't worry, I'll still have time for my other stories. Drabbles are pretty quick and easy to write. I just need to know, would you guys want to see me try that?**

******Peace out!**

******~CWB**


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